Automotive Quality Systems Handbook P2 pps

l Failure modes analysis l Statistical process control l Measurement systems analysis l Employee motivation l On-the-job training Efficiency will increase through common application of requirements for: l Continuous improvement in cost l Continuous improvement in productivity l Employee motivation l On-the-job training l Measurement and review of product realization stages l Use of common tools for FMEA, SPC, MSA Reduction in second party system audits Currently a supplier supplying customers in the USA, France, Italy, and Germany may be subject to audit by one or more of their customers because of the customers lack of confidence in quality assurance schemes other than its own. Hence a QS-9000 regis- tered supplier that supplies both Ford USA and BMW Germany could be subject to a VDA 6.1 audit, as the two standards are different. By the USA, Germany, France, UK, and Italy agreeing a common standard and the associated registration scheme, registra- tion to ISO/TS 16949 is recognized by all the manufactures that are members of IATF. These organizations will therefore not find it necessary to perform any further quality system audits of ISO/TS 16949 registered suppliers. The origins 17 auto101.qxd 10/04/00 21:26 Page 17 Reduction in multiple third party registrations Currently a supplier supplying customers in the USA and Europe needs to seek certifi- cation to QS-9000 and either VDA 6.1, AVSQ 94, or EAQF 94. Within Europe, certification to any one of the three European quality system requirements is, at least in theory, recognized by customers in the other countries. Common language to improve understanding of quality system requirements A common language in quality system requirements is achieved through a common standard. The baseline language of the standard is English and all translations should be made from English to the other language, thereby minimizing scope for error. However, it is common to find that terms in one language do not have the same meaning in another language. Hopefully, through the deliberations of the IATF, any differences will be identified and resolved. 18 The origins auto101.qxd 10/04/00 21:26 Page 18 Chapter 2 Basic concepts Quality We all have needs, requirements, wants, and expectations. Needs are essential for life, to maintain certain standards, or essential for products and services, to fulfill the purpose for which they have been acquired. Requirements are what we request of others and may encompass our needs but often we dont fully realize what we need until after we have made our request. For example, now that we own a mobile phone we discover we really need hands-free operation when using the phone while driving a vehicle. Hence our requirements at the moment of sale may or may not express all our needs. Our requirements may include wants  what we would like to have but do not need: nice to have but not essential. Expectations are implied needs or requirements . They have not been requested because we take them for granted  we regard them to be understood within our particular society as the accepted norm. They may be things to which we are accustomed, based on fashion, style, trends, or previous experience. Hence one expects sales staff to be polite and courteous, electronic products to be safe and reliable, police- men to be honest, etc. In supplying products or services there are three fundamental parameters which deter- mine their saleability. They are price, quality, and delivery. Customers require products and services of a given quality to be delivered by or be available by a given time and to be of a price that reflects value for money. These are the requirements of customers. An organization will survive only if it creates and retains satisfied customers and this will only be achieved if it offers for sale products or services which respond to customer needs and expectations as well as requirements. While price is a function of cost, profit margin, and market forces, and delivery is a function of the organizations efficiency and effectiveness, quality is determined by the extent to which a product or service success- fully serves the purposes of the user during usage (not just at the point of sale). Price and delivery are both transient features, whereas the impact of quality is sustained long after the attraction or the pain of price and delivery have subsided. auto102.qxd 10/04/00 21:27 Page 19 The word quality has many meanings: a degree of excellence; conformance with requirements; the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs; fitness for use; freedom from defects, imperfections, or con- tamination; and (a phrase which is gaining popularity) delighting customers. These are just a few meanings; however, the meaning used in the context of ISO/TS 16949 is the one concerned with the totality of characteristics that satisfy needs. The fitness for use definition is shorter, more easily remembered and can be used when making decisions about quality. The specification is often an imperfect definition of what a customer needs; because some needs can be difficult to express clearly, it doesnt mean that by not conforming, the product or service is unfit for use. However, a product that con- forms to requirements may be totally useless. It all depends on whose requirements are being met. For example, if a company sets its own standards and these do not meet cus- tomer needs, its claim to producing quality products is bogus. On the other hand, if the standards are well in excess of what the customer requires, the price tag may well be too high for what customers are prepared to pay  there probably isnt a market for a gold- plated mousetrap, for instance, except as an ornament perhaps! A product which possesses features that satisfy customer needs is a quality product. Likewise, one that possesses features which dissatisfy customers is not a quality product. So the final arbiter on quality is the customer. The customer is the only one who can decide whether the quality of the products and services you supply is satisfactory and you will be conscious of this either by direct feedback or by loss of sales, reduction in market share, and, ultimately, loss of business. There are other considerations in understanding the word quality , such as grade and class . These are treated in ISO 8402:1994 but will be addressed briefly here so as to give a complete picture. Classification of products and services If we group products and services (entities) by type, category, class, and grade we can use the subdivision to make comparisons on an equitable basis. But when we compare entities we must be careful not to claim one is of better quality than the other unless they are of the same grade. Entities of the same type have at least one attribute in common. Entities of the same grade have been designed for the same functional use and there- fore comparisons are valid. Comparisons on quality between entities of different grades, classes, categories, or types are invalid as they have been designed for a different use or purpose. Let us look at some examples to illustrate the point. Food is a type of entity. Transport is another entity. Putting aside the fact that in the food industry the terms class and grade 20 Basic concepts auto102.qxd 10/04/00 21:27 Page 20 are used to denote the condition of post-production product (see bottom of this page), comparisons between types is like comparing fruit and trucks  there are no common attributes. Comparisons between categories is like comparing fruit and vegetables. Comparisons between classes is like comparing apples and oranges. Comparisons between grades is like comparing eating apples and cooking apples. Now let us take another example. Transport is a type of entity. There are different cate- gories of transport such as airliners, ships, automobiles, and trains; they are all modes of transport but each has many different attributes. Differences between categories of transport are therefore differences in modes of transport. Within each category there are differences in class. For manufactured products, differences between classes implies dif- ferences in purpose . Luxury cars, large family cars, small family cars, vans, trucks, four-wheel drive vehicles, etc. fall within the same category of transport but each was designed for a different purpose. Family cars are in a different class to luxury cars; they were not designed for the same purpose. It is therefore inappropriate to compare a Cadillac with a Chevrolet or a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow with a Ford Mondeo. Entities designed for the same purpose but having different specifications are of different grades. A Ford Mondeo GTX is a different grade to a Mondeo LX. They were both designed for the same purpose but differ in their performance and features. Now take another example from the service industry: accommodation. There are vari- ous categories, such as rented, leased, and purchased. In the rented category there are hotels, inns, guest houses, apartments, etc. It would be inappropriate to compare hotels with guest houses or apartments with inns. They are each in a different class. Hotels are a class of accommodation within which are grades such as 5 star, 4 star, 3 star, etc., indi- cating the facilities offered. You can legitimately compare the quality of entities if comparing entities of the same grade. If a low-grade service meets the needs for which it was designed, it is of the req- uisite quality. If a high-grade product or service fails to meet the requirements for which it was designed, it is of poor quality, regardless of it still meeting the requirements for the lower grade. There is a market for such differences in products and services but should customer expectations change then what was acceptable as a particular grade becomes no longer acceptable and regrading has to occur. Where manufacturing processes are prone to uncontrollable variation it is not uncom- mon to grade products as a method of selection. The product that is free of imperfections would be the highest grade and would therefore command the highest price. Any product with imperfections would be downgraded and sold at a correspond- ingly lower price. Examples of such practice arise in the fruit and vegetables trade and the ceramics, glass, and textile industries. In the electronic component industry, grading is a common practice to select devices that operate between certain temperature ranges. In ideal conditions all devices would meet the higher specification but due to manufac- Basic concepts 21 auto102.qxd 10/04/00 21:27 Page 21 turing variation only a few may actually reach full performance. The remainder of the devices have a degraded performance but still offer all the functions of the top-grade component at lower temperatures. To say that these differences are not differences in quality would be misleading, since the products were all designed to fulfill the higher specification. As there is a market for such products it is expedient to exploit it. There is a range over which product quality can vary and still create satisfied customers. Outside the lower end of this range the product is considered to be of poor quality. Quality and price Most of us are attracted to certain products and services by their price. If the price is out- side our reach we dont even consider the product or service, whatever its quality, except perhaps to form an opinion about it. We also rely on price as a comparison, hoping that we can obtain the same characteristics at a lower price. In the luxury goods market, a high price is often a mark of quality but it is occasionally a confidence trick aimed at making more profit for the supplier. When certain products and services are rare, the price tends to be high and when plentiful the price is low, regardless of their quality. One can purchase the same item in different stores at different prices, some as much as 50% less, many at 10% less than the highest price. You can also receive a discount for buy- ing in bulk, buying on customer credit card, and being a trade customer rather than a retail customer. Travelers know that goods are more expensive at the airport than from the country craft shop. However, in the country craft shop, defective goods or seconds may well be on sale, whereas at the airport the supplier will want to display only the best examples as a rule. Often an increase in the price of a product may indicate a better service, such as free on-site maintenance, free delivery, free telephone support line. The discount shops may not offer such attractions. The price label on any product or service should be for a product or service free of defects. If there are defects the label should say as much, otherwise the supplier may well be in breach of national laws and statutes. Price is therefore not a feature or character- istic of the product but is a feature of the service associated with it. Price is negotiable for the same quality of product. Some may argue that quality is expensive but in reali- ty, the saving you make on buying low-priced goods could well be eroded by inferior service or differences in the cost of ownership. Quality and cost Philip Crosby published his book Quality Is Free in 1979 and caused a lot of raised eye- brows among executives because they always believed the removal of defects was an 22 Basic concepts auto102.qxd 10/04/00 21:27 Page 22 in-built cost in running any business. To get quality you had to pay for inspectors to detect the errors! What Crosby told us was that if we could eliminate all the errors and reach zero defects, we would not only reduce our costs but increase the level of customer satisfaction by several orders of magnitude. In fact there is the cost of doing the right things right first time and the cost of not doing the right things right first time. The latter are quality costs or the cost incurred because failure is possible. If failure of a product, a process, or a service is not possible, there are no quality costs. We could classify the costs as avoidable costs and unavoidable costs. We have to pay for labor, materials, facilities, machines, transport, etc. These costs are unavoidable but we are also paying in addi- tion some cost to cover the prevention, detection, and removal of errors. Should customers have to pay for the errors made by others? There is a basic cost if failure is not possible and an additional cost in preventing and detecting failures and correcting errors because our prevention and detection programs are ineffective. If you reduce complexity and install failure-prevention measures you will be spending less on failure detection and correction. There is an initial investment to be paid, but in the long term you can meet your customer requirements at a cost far less than you were spending pre- viously. Some customers are now forcing their suppliers to reduce internal costs so that they can offer the same products at lower prices. High quality and low quality; poor quality and good quality When a product or service satisfies our needs we are likely to say it is of good quality and likewise when we are dissatisfied we say the product or service is of poor quality. When the product or service exceeds our needs we will probably say it is of high quali- ty and likewise if it falls well below our expectations we say it is of low quality. These measures of quality are all subjective. What is good to one may be poor to anoth- er. In the undeveloped countries, any product, no matter what the quality, is welcomed. When you have nothing, even the poorest of goods is better than none. A product may not need to possess defects for it to be regarded as poor quality  it may not possess the features that we would expect, such as access for maintenance. These are design fea- tures which give a product its saleability. Products and services that conform to customer requirements are considered to be products of acceptable quality. However, we need to express our relative satisfaction with products and services and hence use subjective terms such as high, low, good, or poor quality. If a product that meets customer require- ments is of acceptable quality, what do we call one that does not quite meet the requirements, or perhaps exceeds the requirements? An otherwise acceptable product has a blemish  is it now unacceptable? Perhaps not. It may still be far superior to other competing products in its acceptable features and characteristics. Basic concepts 23 auto102.qxd 10/04/00 21:27 Page 23 While not measurable, these subjective terms enable customers to rate products and services on the extent to which they satisfy their requirements and are therefore suitable for their purpose. However, to the company supplying products and services, a more precise means of measuring quality is needed. To the supplier, a quality product is one that meets in full the perceived customer requirements. Quality characteristics Any feature or characteristic of a product or service which is needed to satisfy customer needs or achieve fitness for use is a quality characteristic . When dealing with products the characteristics are almost always technical characteristics, whereas service quality characteristics have a human dimension. Some typical quality characteristics are given in the table below. Product Quality Characteristics Accessibility Functionality Size Availability Interchangeability Susceptibility Appearance Maintainability Storability Adaptability Odor Taste Cleanliness Operability Testability Consumption Portability Traceability Durability Producibility Toxicity Disposability Reliability Transportability Emittance Reparability Vulnerability Flammability Safety Weight Flexibility Security Service Quality Characteristics Accessibility Credibility Honesty Accuracy Dependability Promptness Courtesy Efficiency Responsiveness Comfort Effectiveness Reliability Competence Flexibility Security 24 Basic concepts auto102.qxd 10/04/00 21:27 Page 24 These are the characteristics which need to be specified and their achievement con- trolled, assured, improved, managed, and demonstrated. These are the characteristics which form the subject matter of the specified requirements referred to in ISO 9000. When the value of these characteristics is quantified or qualified they are termed quali- ty requirements or requirements for quality . ISO 8402:1994 defines requirements for quality as an expression of the needs or their translation into a set of quantitatively or qualitatively stated requirements for the characteristics of an entity to enable its realiza- tion and examination . While rather verbose, this definition removes the confusion over quality requirements and technical requirements. (An additional definition is provided in Appendix A.) Technical requirements for a product or service are quality requirements. The requirements of ISO 9000 are quality system requirements. Quality, reliability, and safety There is a school of thought that distinguishes between quality and reliability and qual- ity and safety. Quality is thought to be a non-time-dependent characteristic and reliability a time-dependent characteristic. Quality is thought of as conformance to spec- ification regardless of whether the specification actually meets the needs of the customer or society. If a product or service is unreliable, it is clearly unfit for use and hence of poor quality. If a product is reliable but emits toxic fumes, is too heavy, or not transportable when required to be, it is of poor quality. Similarly, if a product is unsafe it is of poor quality even though it may meet its specification in other ways. In such a case the spec- ification is not a true reflection of customer needs. A nuclear plant may meet all the specified safety requirements but if society demands greater safety standards, the plant is not meeting the quality requirements of society, even though it meets the immediate customer requirements. You therefore need to identify your real customers in order to determine the quality characteristics that need to be satisfied. Customers are not only the buyers. They may be users, consumers, shareholders, and society in general. The needs of all these people have to be satisfied in order for quality to be achieved. This is borne out by ISO 8402:1994 which defines the requirements of society as the obliga- tions resulting from laws, regulations, rules, codes, statutes, and other considerations and the standard advises that all requirements of society should be taken into account when defining the requirements for quality. Quality parameters Differences in design can be denoted by grade or class but can also be the result of poor attention to customer needs. It is not enough to produce products that conform to the specifications or supply services that meet managements requirements. Quality is a Basic concepts 25 auto102.qxd 10/04/00 21:27 Page 25 composite of three parameters : quality of design, quality of conformance, and quality of use: l Quality of design is the extent to which the design reflects a product or service that satisfies customer needs and expectations. All the necessary characteristics should be designed into the product or service at the outset. l Quality of conformance is the extent to which the product or service conforms to the design standard. The design has to be faithfully reproduced in the product or service. l Quality of use is the extent by which the user is able to secure continuity of use from the product or service. Products need to have a low cost of ownership, be safe and reliable, maintainable in use, and easy to use. Products or services that do not possess the right features and characteristics either by design or by construction are products of poor quality. Those that fail to give customer satisfaction by being uneconomic to use are also products of poor quality, regardless of their conformance to specifications. Dimensions of quality In addition to quality parameters there are three dimensions of quality which extend the perception beyond the concepts outlined previously: l The business quality dimension . This is the extent to which the business services the needs of society. Customers are not only interested in the quality of particular prod- ucts and services but judge suppliers by the general level of quality products they provide and continuity of supply, their care of the environment, and their adherence to health, safety, and legal regulations. l The product quality dimension . This is the extent to which the products and servic- es provided meet the needs of specific customers. l The organization quality dimension . This is the extent to which the organization maximizes its efficiency and effectiveness, achieving minimum waste, efficient man- agement, and good human relations. Companies that do not operate efficiently or do not meet their employees expectations will generally find their failure costs to be high and will lose their best people. This directly affects all aspects of quality. 26 Basic concepts auto102.qxd 10/04/00 21:27 Page 26 [...]... improve quality; they are quality control, quality improvement, and quality assurance, which collectively are known as quality management This trilogy is illustrated in Figure 2.1 Techniques such as quality planning, quality costs, “Just-in-time”, and statistical process control are all elements of QUALITY CONTROL QUALITY MANAGEMENT QUALITY ASSURANCE Figure 2.1 Quality management QUALITY IMPROVEMENT auto102.qxd... a quality system which complies with ISO 9001 in a company that had no formal quality system The transition between where quality improvement stops and quality control begins is where the level has been set and the mechanisms are in place to keep quality on or above the set level In simple terms, if quality improvement reduces quality costs from 25% of turnover to 10% of turnover, the objective of quality. .. product or service quality auto102.qxd 10/07/00 16:36 Page 31 Basic concepts 31 Quality control (QC) The ISO definition states that quality control is the operational techniques and activities that are used to fulfill requirements for quality This definition could imply that any activity, whether serving the improvement, control, management, or assurance of quality, could be a quality control activity... 10/04/00 21:27 Page 29 Basic concepts 29 these three methods ISO 8402:1994 separates quality planning from quality control, quality improvement, and quality assurance but by including planning within the domain of each concept, one can focus on the purpose of planning more easily Quality management The basic goal of quality management is the elimination of failure: both in the concept and in the reality... when applied to quality regulate quality performance and prevent undesirable changes in the quality standards Quality control is a process for maintaining standards and not for creating them Standards are maintained through a process of selection, measurement, and correction of work, so that only those products or services that emerge from the process meet the standards In simple terms, quality control... to avoid confusion When addressing quality, it is necessary to be specific about the object of our discussion Is it the quality of products or services, or the quality of organization in which we work, or the business as a whole, about which we are talking? If we only intend that our remarks apply to the quality of products, we should say so Level of attention to quality Whilst the decision to pursue... has often been said that one cannot inspect quality into a product A product remains the same after inspection as it did before, so no amount of inspection will change the quality of the product However, what inspection does is measure quality in a way that allows us to make decisions on whether to release a piece of work Work that passes inspection should be quality work but inspection unfortunately... perception in the service industries that ISO 9000 quality systems only deal with the procedural aspects of a service and not the professional aspects For instance in a medical practice, the ISO 9000 quality system is often used only for processing patients auto102.qxd 10/04/00 21:27 Page 30 30 Basic concepts and not for the medical treatment In legal practices, the quality system again has been focused only... performance through metrics and goals 1 Gregory H Watson, Business Systems Engineering (Wiley, 1994) auto102.qxd 10/07/00 16:35 Page 28 28 Basic concepts Quality should be a strategic issue that involves the owners as it delivers fiscal performance Low quality will cause fiscal performance ultimately to decline The typical focus for a quality system is at the operations level ISO 9000 is seen as an initiative... Typical Quality System Focus Ideal Quality System Focus Enterprise Strategic Cross-Business Ownership Market Strategic Business Business Cross-Functional Customer Administrative Business Process Operations Work Departmental Process Task Process Task Process Table 2-1 Attention levels Achieving, sustaining, and improving quality Several methods have evolved to achieve, sustain, and improve quality; . Techniques such as quality planning, quality costs, Just-in-time, and statistical process control are all elements of 28 Basic concepts QUALITY CONTROL QUALITY ASSURANCE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT QUALITY MANAGEMENT Figure. requirements. Quality is a Basic concepts 25 auto102.qxd 10/04/00 21:27 Page 25 composite of three parameters : quality of design, quality of conformance, and quality of use: l Quality of design is. improving quality Several methods have evolved to achieve, sustain, and improve quality ; they are qual- ity control, quality improvement, and quality assurance, which collectively are known as quality